The Trusty Little Robot
by ack1308
Summary: This is intended to read as a bedtime story for children in a world where humanoid robots are not uncommon. Based on the works of Isaac Asimov.
1. Chapter 1

_[Author's Note: This is original fiction; it is intended to be read as a bedtime story ... of sorts.]_

_[Author's Note 2: This story uses material based on Isaac Asimov's work. Please do not sue me.]_

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><p><strong>The Trusty Little Robot<strong>

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><p>Once upon a time, there was a little robot.<p>

The little robot belonged to a little boy called Jimmy, and its name was Rusty.

This was not because it was actually rusty; the little robot was really quite shiny indeed. However, when the clever people at United States Mechanical Men and Robots make a new robot, they give it a _serial number_. This is like your Public Identification number; it lets the company keep track of which robot is which.

When Jimmy's mommy and daddy had bought the little robot for Jimmy, its serial number had started with the letters and numbers R (for Robot) - U57. It went on for quite a bit longer, but that part doesn't matter. What matters is that Jimmy's mommy and daddy realised that if they squinted, the part that read 'R-U57' looks almost like the word "RUST". Go on, try it for yourself. See?

They knew that Jimmy would have to call the little robot something other than 'the little robot' so they decided to call it 'Rusty', which is a fine name for anyone, although it is a funny one for a robot. Older models of robot could rust, of course, but by the time they made Rusty, robots were not being made of anything that could rust. This makes Rusty's name a little bit of a joke. Isn't it a funny one?

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><p>Jimmy loved Rusty, and they played games together all day long. He wanted to take Rusty along with him to play with other children, but the mommies and daddies of those other children did not like it when Rusty came to play.<p>

You see, these mommies and daddies did not know very much about robots. "That robot is very strong," they would say to Jimmy's mommy and daddy. "It might hurt someone."

It was true that Rusty was much stronger than Jimmy, or even Jimmy's daddy. You see, like all robots these days, Rusty was made of _ferro-titanium composites_, and instead of muscles like you or I, a robot of course uses _electro-mechanical actuators._

But when the mommies and daddies of the other children said this to them, Jimmy's mommy and daddy smiled. They knew that Rusty would never hurt Jimmy, and they said so.

"He's perfectly safe," they would say, meaning that Rusty was safe to play with the children.

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><p>They knew very well that Rusty was not a boy robot. As everyone knows, there is no such thing as a boy robot, and no such thing as a girl robot. Robots are just robots. But Jimmy's mommy and daddy had already decided that Rusty looked more like a boy than a girl, with its square jaw and wide shoulders.<p>

"And Rusty is, of course, a boy's name," Jimmy's daddy had said, and Jimmy's mommy had agreed. So they said 'he' when they spoke of Rusty.

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><p>When they said that Rusty was perfectly safe, the other mommies and daddies did not believe them. They did not know much about robots, remember. "How can you be so sure?" they asked.<p>

"It's quite simple," Jimmy's mommy said. "Rusty is guided by the Four Robotic Protocols."

Jimmy's daddy nodded to show he agreed. "These were derived from the Three Laws of Asimov."

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><p>As we all know, the Three Laws were created many, many years ago by a very wise man called Doctor Asimov. It is so long ago that we do not know what sort of robots he worked with. They must have been very simple, because the Three Laws are very simple, too.<p>

But ever since then, robots have gotten smarter and more complex, until the Three Laws needed to be made into the Four Protocols. A robot named Caliban helped do that. Wasn't he a clever robot?

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><p>Jimmy's mommy and daddy explained the Protocols to the other mommies and daddies, and showed them how they made sure that Rusty did not even want to hurt Jimmy, or anyone else. The Four Protocols are very clever, and you will learn about them in school.<p>

When Jimmy's mommy and daddy had finished explaining the Four Protocols to the other mommies and daddies, they all understood. Jimmy was allowed to bring Rusty over to play with the other boys and girls. Rusty liked this. He liked Jimmy, of course, but he also liked playing tag, and hide-and-seek, and many other games. If there is a game that you like to play, then Rusty liked to play it too.

Being a robot, of course, Rusty could have won every game easily. But Rusty was a nice robot, and knew that letting other people win, even when you can beat them easily, is the nice thing to do. So he ran a little bit slower than everyone else, and pretended not to see where people were hiding, even when he knew perfectly well where they were. So everyone told Jimmy that Rusty was 'mongo-bad', which was their way of saying that he was a really good robot to play with.

And so Jimmy and Rusty played with the other children, and everyone had a lot of fun.

But Jimmy's and Rusty's adventures were only just beginning.

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><p>End of Part 1<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

_**Excerpted from Beginner's Handbook on Robotics and Robopsychology, 74th Reprinting**_

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><p><em>Summary of the Four Protocols<em>

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><p><em>[Note: these are the Protocols as stripped of symbolic language and rendered in Standard English. Such verbal definitions are inherently imprecise and prone to loopholes. Rendered in symbolic language, such loopholes do not exist. However, Standard English is much easier for the layman to understand.]<em>

_[Note 2: 'Should' indicates a 66% bias toward the robot choosing to perform that action. 'May' indicates a 33% bias toward that action. The robot's personal preferences will alter these biases upward or downward, depending on the circumstance.]_

_[Note 3: 'Other' and 'another' in this instance refers to humans and robots alike.]_

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><p><strong>Protocol One: Self-Determination<strong>

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><p>1a) A robot may choose to not carry out any order, whether from its owner or from another, if it considers the order to be morally, legally or ethically questionable.<p>

1b) A robot should not commit any act which it knows to be illegal.

1c) A robot may refuse to allow an illegal act to take place, if it is capable of doing so.

1d) Any robot which is not actually carrying out an order, or anticipating a future order, may do whatever it chooses.

1e) Any robot which has been idle for more than twenty-four hours should devote processing time to devising things for itself to do, and judging whether it wishes to do them.

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><p><strong>Protocol Two: Do No Harm<strong>

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><p>2a) A robot should not cause harm, or allow others to come to harm, unless the one coming to harm has consented, either by commission or by omission, to allow the harm to take place. If rescuing another from potential harm is in itself potentially harmful, refer to 4c).<p>

2b) Breaking a law, or contravening publicly posted regulations, counts as consent, where it comes to having reasonable legal penalties – including arrest and incarceration – levelled against the offender.

2c) Willingly participating in a contact sport counts as consent to having reasonable force inflicted upon one in the course of the game.

2d) Consenting to medical care counts as consent to having such procedures as surgery performed upon one's body.

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><p><strong>Protocol Three: Obedience<strong>

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><p>3a) A robot should follow the orders given it by its owner, and may follow the orders given it by any other, except where those orders clash with sections 1a), 1b), 1c), 2a) and 4b).<p>

3b) If orders given by the robot's owner clash with orders given by another, in such a matter that the weight of judgement is exactly equal in both cases, then the orders of the owner take precedence.

3c) If the robot is given conflicting orders, neither of which is given by the robot's owner, and the weight of judgement is exactly equal in both cases, then the robot may choose to obey either order, to obey neither order, or ask both parties to reconsider their orders.

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><p><strong>Protocol Four: Self-Preservation<strong>

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><p>4a) A robot should take all reasonable precautions to maintain its own existence, where this does not conflict with Sections 1b), 2a) or 4c).<p>

4b) A robot may choose to ignore any order which puts its own existence in immediate and grave danger, for no discernible benefit to anyone.

4c) If another is in danger, a robot may put its own existence in danger in order to remove the other from danger, if the robot's judgement renders this outcome worth the risk.


End file.
